Comic Book Review: Dry County by Rich Tommaso
After six months in Miami, cartoonist Lou Rossi is finding he’s not cut out for the night club lifestyle, no matter how often he goes. Tonight, he’s going to do laundry instead. At the laundromat, he meets an attractive woman named Janet Laughton, and they hit it off. Having some encouragement convinces Janet to leave her deadbeat boyfriend Earl when he decides they should move to Fort Myers.
Before Lou can start seriously romancing Janet, however, she’s abducted by a violent attacker, and the only witness is left in a coma. Lou takes the “tell the cops and she’s dead” note seriously, so doesn’t tell them about Janet and starts trying to track her down himself with the aid of his record store clerk best friend and the jailbait girl from across the street.
Who’s the kidnapper? Is it Earl? Janet’s even worse ex, Cliff? The Christian gangbangers that have been prowling the neighborhood? Or someone you’d never suspect?
This crime noir graphic novel is set in the early 1990s, which is a reminder of how quickly some aspects of technology have changed in the last couple of decades. It’s unlikely Lou would be going in to the newspaper’s office to draw his comic strip nowadays, even assuming he could find a newspaper that would run a non-syndicated local feature.
The art is a touch cartoony and a bit stiff, but works well for this kind of story. I’m wondering if it was a deliberate choice to make Michelle’s (the sixteen year old “jailbait” neighbor) face look to be in her thirties, older than some of the grown women in the story.
Robert, the best friend, is more sexist than Lou, and uses some unpleasant language.
Not knowing the twists ahead of time is part of the attraction of mysteries, so I will just say that some people make bad decisions in a mostly believable way and that this is the first installment of what could be a series about Lou Rossi. Oh, and eventually the title makes sense.
Content note: As hinted at above, domestic abuse. This is a “mature readers” title, so plenty of rough language.
Recommended to noir fans.
